Thrasher Magazine

Still hanging tough in Huntington Beach—Friday and Saturday saw the men and boys compete in the Vans Park Series. Those who nailed it during Friday’s prelims advanced to Saturday's semis and finals, competing for points and cash. Making it into Friday's finals is no guarantee of heading to the championships in Shanghai. You do get a pretty nice check either way, though. —Joe Hammeke

Welcome to Huntington Beach, now behave yourself

Low skill but high chill, guarding a sandcastle on the beach is easy livin'

Ryan from Grinderz Burgers was holding down the Boards for Bros tent. Drop off your used skate gear for some Grinderz bucks and help some struggling kids learn to skate

Ronnie Sandoval and his pops

The course, of course

Diving board situation, no diving allowed

Heimana Reynolds, looking like he’s got a cold shoulder

But that won’t stop him from busting a huge Madonna

Cory Juneau, high speed back lip through the corner

What’s this?

With a world-class skatepark a few blocks from his house, you know Huntington Beach local Dave Duncan’s down every day. Puttin' that Guest Model to good use!

Speaking of HB locs, Ed Templeton would occasionally drop by on his daily HB pier missions

Fourteen-year-old Keegan Palmer, aka the fidget spinner, made it all the way from Australia and he can’t even drive yet. Wait, you can't drive here from Australia anyway…

Patrick Ryan, huge fs air to disaster that resulted in a hang-up

Okay, if you can’t follow my finger I’ll have to bring out the breathalyzer

The young ones were on fire all week. CJ Collins with Roman Pabich in tow

Willy Lara spins a shirtless five over the hip

Ronnie Sandoval twists up a beauty of a frontside invert

Nora and her disposable camera join the media frenzy

Ronnie Sandoval, back with a finger flip lien to tail

CJ Collins, dive-bomb Indy air. Kid’s got style

Tom Schaar, huge alley-oop backside ollie to the bank

Ben Hatchel, tailgrab to fakie, dodging traffic

Chris Russell was out due to a broken ankle, but still on deck to check out the action

Christian Hosoi and his son Classic keep it chill and watch the live webcast in the comfort of the VIP tent

Cedric Pabich, coming up on some grub. So many choices

Back in the bowl, Alex Sorgente nosegrind off the E

Oh no, what’s CJ up to now?

Fellow miscreant Keegan Palmer was definitely intrigued

Shortly after this, the ball was bouncing through the bowl

VPS tour challenger Josh Borden pushes a no-comply slide on a bank that saw more than enough bonelesses and noseblunts throughout the weekend

Oski is always one of the toughest guys to get a photo of. His runs are freestyled: no routine and never the same tricks; he's completely unpredictable, which is probably why he’s such a favorite with the judges. Backside nosegrind

Fellow Laplander Karl Berglind, huge extended Madonna

Rialto's Tristen Rennie isn't bothered by the extreme heat, back Smith off the extension over the hip

Murilo Peres 5-0 to fakie while Josh Borden follow films with some new fangled stabilized go-pro contraption

Thrasher web lord Schmitty, hyped how Dan Stolling’s edit is coming together

Karl Berglind stoked on his fresh Vans patch provided by TM Matt Bennett

Willy Lara, no shirt, no problem. Still going to China

Ivan Federico had some insane combos going throughout practice and the qualifiers. This judo air was followed by a kickflip melon, but some untimely falls kept him out of the final round

Jagger Eaton, noseblunt on the bank wall

Ishod Wair skated nonstop all week, all the way up to the finals. Indy air in the deep

Zion Wright busts a huge 540. Whoa, who’s that working the live camera?

It’s Lee Dupont! Lee’s been on KOTR with Circa, filmed Dying to Live and let’s not forget the Chief’s part in Chomp on This

CJ Collins was up next and nailed all his tricks, finishing with this blindside kickflip to fakie over the hip

Then he rolled out somewhat confused as to why everyone was charging at him

Happy 14th Birthday, CJ!

Coming in hot

I doubt CJ even got a look at the cake before it was smashed all over his face

"This is the second year in a row I got smashed with my birthday cake!"

What’s it taste like?

Not bad, not bad

Sorry, Barbie

Jack Fardell, boneless on the bank wall

You can't judge me! Oh wait, you guys can: James Craig, Kyle Berard and Jason Rothmeyer

Snacking in the shade, Vans and Nike TMs, Matt Bennett and Mike Sinclair, Toy Machine Good and Evil

Greyson Fletcher, absent from practice all week, showed up just before his run. He don't need no stinkin' practice

Greyson, always a crowd favorite, high speed smith grind

Product toss to the bleachers

Johnny Layton handing out the goods

Stoked lil' kiddo

In the heat of the finals last run last trick, Corey Juneau took the frontside flip to the deep corner and made it

Malba approved

CJ signs some autographs

Huge stalefish for a little guy

Volcom TM Remy Stratton and CJ, mucho relaxo

Hatchell skated the finals with an all-or-nothing approach and brought tricks he never tried in practice, like taking this front feeble to revert

Already in solid first place Tom didn’t need his last run so he went for the heelflip McTwist on the first wall

Using the first wall rebate he decided to give it another go

Here’s your Men’s finalists: 3rd place CJ Collins, 2nd Ben Hatchell and in first Tom Schaar!

To the victor go the spoils

Be back next year. Good luck in China, guys. Peach out!